I like to try control decks of various types. Lately, I’ve been messing around with fish variants. The list below represents an odd type of fish designed to play creatures that each represent some form of disruption. It doesn’t do anything fancy, simply plays creatures and tries to mess with the opponent’s gameplan. I’m going to give you the list, then discuss some of the choices I’ve made.

*Critters*
4 Tidehollow Sculler   
4 Vendilion Clique   
4 Cursecatcher      
4 Meddling Mage   

*Stuff*
3 Duress   
3 Mana Drain       
4 Force of Will   
3 Mana Leak      
3 Night’s Whisper   
1 Ancestral Recall   
1 Echoing Truth      
1 Swords to Plowshears   
1 Demonic Tutor   
1 Vampiric Tutor   
1 Engineered Explosives

*Mana*
5 Moxen       
1 Black Lotus      
4 Underground Sea   
4 Tundra      
3 Polluted Delta      
2 Flooded Strand   
3 City of Brass      

For the creature base, it actually feels a bit slim, but should be sufficient. I would have liked to have run Mishra’s Factory, but the mana base needs to support lots of colored mana.

Tidehollow sculler: Easily the most untested part of this deck, I think he has some potential. Since creature removal can be rather sparse in this format, you’re likely to keep the card he 187s removed from the game. The removed from the game part is particularly fun meaning recursive strategies get no value from the effect.

Vendilion Clique: A complex but ultimately satisfying card. The instant speed factor is particularly nice and looking at your opponent’s hand is always a good thing. The decision on whether or not to allow them to cycle something is often difficult, but does not detract from the overall value or functionality of the card.

Cursecatcher: Now I’ve used this guy quite a bit and have been reasonably happy with him especially when using mana leak. Essentially he restricts several dumb early plays by the opponent and a few more typical ones such as dark ritual and duress. You don’t often get to sac him to counter stuff, but the threat of him being there is really useful. Late game he works well with mana leak to give it a bit more of an effective spread.

Meddling Mage: An oldie but a goodie, this could be more of a meta choice for me, but I often run into storm strategies. He doesn’t really stop storm, but he does create a hurdle once you know what you’re up against. Furthermore, with all of the ways to look at an opponent’s hand, you should always have a reasonable idea of what to name with him

Mana Leak: Always a bit questionable, but, really, there are few better options for 1U counterspells.

Mana Drain: I actually questioned this one a bit, in that I have few ways to capitalize on the free mana. Still, if you want a hard counter it’s hard to complain.

Night’s Whisper: I’ve been going back and forth with this one as to whether or not this needs to be Dark Confidant. Currently I like the Whisper.

City of Brass: When I began looking at Tidehollow Sculler it became obvious that I needed something that tapped for all three colors without a major drawback. This was the best solution I could come up with.

I present this decklist with honest desire for improvements upon it. If you have reason to think that it simply will not fly in a competitive environment, I’d like to hear your reasons and suggestions. I’d also like some help with the sideboard.

So, here goes...

My name is Preston and I'm a graduate student in Georgia. I have a M.S. in clinical psychology and am currently working on a Psy.D. I started playing Magic back in high school during Mirage, but before Visions was released. I played throughout my high school years until I graduated. At the time, Mercadian Masques block was going strong and I wasn't terribly fond of it. I decided to take a break from Magic for the summer...and just stopped playing entirely.

In the interim a friend of mine introduced me to D&D, which I poured myself into. A couple of years after that we got into D&D minis, which got me back into a tournament scene and caused me to hang around gaming shops again. However, I graduated and need to move to pursue graduate training. This led to me ebaying lots of stuff, including the majority of my magic collection. The whole thing hurt, but I figured I was over it. That was not the case either.

When I arrived at my destination, I began going to the local gaming shop. There was some interest in D&D minis, but what I found was a thriving magic scene. In the span of a couple of months, I was back in.This was around the release of coldsnap. I generally played standard (that was the primary focus for the store). However, I soon became aware of the seedy underbelly of Magic that was Vintage. People played cards I'd always heard about but never seen shuffled. Strategies were complex and cards were overpowered. I was pretty well hooked on it too.

I still play standard primarily, as there isn't much of a T1 scene where I am now, but I like Vintage and enjoy thinking about strategies for it. I've been lurking on and off on this site for about a year, so I decided to take the plunge and register.